My husband ordered this book set and the following review is his:
This two-volume set by Ian McGilchrist is an in-depth analysis of the duality of the left hemisphere and right hemisphere physiology of the brain, and the implications for human knowledge and understanding. It is written with thoroughness and detailed scholarship that is reflected in a bibliography that is itself over 300 pages.
The book looks at the neurology of the brain, its evolution, how it actually works, and most importantly, what it means with a view to eventually answering the question, who are we. How do we come to apprehend and comprehend our world. What is the nature of reality to be understood not only rationally but through imagination, experience, and intuition.
It is an argument against the reductionist, materialist, modern strain of thought that only see's the world as bits of matter that can be understood by simply putting it all together in the right sequence. It effectively dispels simplistic materialism for a more nuanced, more holistic, more integrated understanding of the way our minds work and therefore, the way the world works, and what science can reveal. Well written and compelling.
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Well Written and Compelling
My husband ordered this book set and the following review is his:This two-volume set by Ian McGilchrist is an in-depth analysis of the duality of the left hemisphere and right hemisphere physiology of the brain, and the implications for human knowledge and understanding. It is written with thoroughness and detailed scholarship that is reflected in a bibliography that is itself over 300 pages.The book looks at the neurology of the brain, its evolution, how it actually works, and most importantly, what it means with a view to eventually answering the question, who are we. How do we come to apprehend and comprehend our world. What is the nature of reality to be understood not only rationally but through imagination, experience, and intuition.It is an argument against the reductionist, materialist, modern strain of thought that only see's the world as bits of matter that can be understood by simply putting it all together in the right sequence. It effectively dispels simplistic materialism for a more nuanced, more holistic, more integrated understanding of the way our minds work and therefore, the way the world works, and what science can reveal. Well written and compelling.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2024
My husband ordered this book set and the following review is his:
This two-volume set by Ian McGilchrist is an in-depth analysis of the duality of the left hemisphere and right hemisphere physiology of the brain, and the implications for human knowledge and understanding. It is written with thoroughness and detailed scholarship that is reflected in a bibliography that is itself over 300 pages.
The book looks at the neurology of the brain, its evolution, how it actually works, and most importantly, what it means with a view to eventually answering the question, who are we. How do we come to apprehend and comprehend our world. What is the nature of reality to be understood not only rationally but through imagination, experience, and intuition.
It is an argument against the reductionist, materialist, modern strain of thought that only see's the world as bits of matter that can be understood by simply putting it all together in the right sequence. It effectively dispels simplistic materialism for a more nuanced, more holistic, more integrated understanding of the way our minds work and therefore, the way the world works, and what science can reveal. Well written and compelling.
This two-volume set by Ian McGilchrist is an in-depth analysis of the duality of the left hemisphere and right hemisphere physiology of the brain, and the implications for human knowledge and understanding. It is written with thoroughness and detailed scholarship that is reflected in a bibliography that is itself over 300 pages.
The book looks at the neurology of the brain, its evolution, how it actually works, and most importantly, what it means with a view to eventually answering the question, who are we. How do we come to apprehend and comprehend our world. What is the nature of reality to be understood not only rationally but through imagination, experience, and intuition.
It is an argument against the reductionist, materialist, modern strain of thought that only see's the world as bits of matter that can be understood by simply putting it all together in the right sequence. It effectively dispels simplistic materialism for a more nuanced, more holistic, more integrated understanding of the way our minds work and therefore, the way the world works, and what science can reveal. Well written and compelling.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2022
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2022
The Matter with Things is more than a book. It is an intellectual foundation for a world that can value truth, beauty, and goodness. Using neuroscience, physics, metaphysics, evolution, an understanding of consciousness, intuition, imagination, reason, science, philosophy and the sacred, the work is wonderful and wise but also long and complex. It asks the questions – How do we know what is true? What account of reality emerges? And who are we as individual beings and as a species? It does this in part by examining Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World (the book’s subtitle). The book comes in 3 parts, with an introduction, 28 chapters, an epilogue, 8 appendices, and a 200-page bibliography. It may be helpful to take notes and perhaps to view the chapter videos on the McGilchrist website. These one hour videos are records of conversations between Iain McGilchrist and Alex Gomez-Marin on topics in the book’s chapters. I found them helpful in developing my own understanding of the material when reviewing my notes though they would probably only be marginally helpful without reading the chapters first.
My aim in the rest of this review is to make them about us, about our common humanity, and the gift that is The Matter with Things. We can be manipulative and attentive, selfish and generous, fearful and courageous, callous and compassionate. We more easily see these things in others. My hope is that these three meditations will perhaps provide an opportunity to see them in ourselves as well as to see them in the whole human enterprise. The first two meditations have taken their themes from The Matter with Things. The Left and Right in their titles refer both to our asymmetric brain hemispheres, that is to our neuroanatomy, as well as what’s left to us plus what we get right.
Two notes may be helpful before you read the poems. The simile “like fools with a map” is in the first poem. The point here is that the fools have the map but miss the experience and reality that the map, whether graphics, words, ideas, just represents. In the third line of the final meditation, “My humanity is caught up in yours,” is Desmond Tutu’s translation of the Zulu word Ubuntu.
We Are What Is Left
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my
Language and logic and lies
Fictions seem to last longer than the truth
which is always derivative in this world
of either/or and the land of certainty,
built on shifting sand. It is the home of egos
and some of survival’s necessities.
Like a vision with blinders,
we just name things – this is…
You are…
They will…
Nouns name; that’s all.
These little thoughts are in fast company.
Easy are these directions without depth.
Though many voices speak,
one voice says – this way –
mistaking representation for reality.
We might get comfortable living here
in this place where our home is not,
where all seems locally linear.
The time measured here eats his children,
and this servant can control the master.
Love can sometimes find a space,
and perhaps fear always does.
Do we believe stardust can always start over?
We Are What Is Right
Moving and fishing and flow, oh my
Integration is both more difficult for us
than deriving and is a softer presence
in this, our home of both/and.
It is at first liminal, then shared,
and then renewed, for a time whole and healed.
Presence and the integral are related to that
and that to the flow. Waiting at the gates
of heaven, may we find dancing and laughter and joy.
The beginning of wisdom is awe at God’s presence.
(or as it is written, the fear of the Lord)
We can take time and take our place too
as well as taking only what we need
while queing up to be integrated.
Space is connected and will be made whole.
May we find the fullness to grow
in word and grow in silence,
in the light and in the dark,
in waves of rainbows, music, and time.
Waters of Life
Will a time of compassion begin?
Stand or sit or kneel and be forgiven.
My humanity is caught up in yours.
Let us find Shalom.
May you live in the grace,
whose path is looking informed by love.
though love is not a thing but a verb.
May you find your peace with uncertainty
and also with the feeling of fullness
that is prayer.
Be free to stumble and rise again.
Find yourself at home.
Let all judgments take into account
the many others in these experiments
with seeing and thought,
with language and intuition and imagination.
Our long journeys toward wholeness are similar
May they be safe places
for souls to show up.
My aim in the rest of this review is to make them about us, about our common humanity, and the gift that is The Matter with Things. We can be manipulative and attentive, selfish and generous, fearful and courageous, callous and compassionate. We more easily see these things in others. My hope is that these three meditations will perhaps provide an opportunity to see them in ourselves as well as to see them in the whole human enterprise. The first two meditations have taken their themes from The Matter with Things. The Left and Right in their titles refer both to our asymmetric brain hemispheres, that is to our neuroanatomy, as well as what’s left to us plus what we get right.
Two notes may be helpful before you read the poems. The simile “like fools with a map” is in the first poem. The point here is that the fools have the map but miss the experience and reality that the map, whether graphics, words, ideas, just represents. In the third line of the final meditation, “My humanity is caught up in yours,” is Desmond Tutu’s translation of the Zulu word Ubuntu.
We Are What Is Left
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my
Language and logic and lies
Fictions seem to last longer than the truth
which is always derivative in this world
of either/or and the land of certainty,
built on shifting sand. It is the home of egos
and some of survival’s necessities.
Like a vision with blinders,
we just name things – this is…
You are…
They will…
Nouns name; that’s all.
These little thoughts are in fast company.
Easy are these directions without depth.
Though many voices speak,
one voice says – this way –
mistaking representation for reality.
We might get comfortable living here
in this place where our home is not,
where all seems locally linear.
The time measured here eats his children,
and this servant can control the master.
Love can sometimes find a space,
and perhaps fear always does.
Do we believe stardust can always start over?
We Are What Is Right
Moving and fishing and flow, oh my
Integration is both more difficult for us
than deriving and is a softer presence
in this, our home of both/and.
It is at first liminal, then shared,
and then renewed, for a time whole and healed.
Presence and the integral are related to that
and that to the flow. Waiting at the gates
of heaven, may we find dancing and laughter and joy.
The beginning of wisdom is awe at God’s presence.
(or as it is written, the fear of the Lord)
We can take time and take our place too
as well as taking only what we need
while queing up to be integrated.
Space is connected and will be made whole.
May we find the fullness to grow
in word and grow in silence,
in the light and in the dark,
in waves of rainbows, music, and time.
Waters of Life
Will a time of compassion begin?
Stand or sit or kneel and be forgiven.
My humanity is caught up in yours.
Let us find Shalom.
May you live in the grace,
whose path is looking informed by love.
though love is not a thing but a verb.
May you find your peace with uncertainty
and also with the feeling of fullness
that is prayer.
Be free to stumble and rise again.
Find yourself at home.
Let all judgments take into account
the many others in these experiments
with seeing and thought,
with language and intuition and imagination.
Our long journeys toward wholeness are similar
May they be safe places
for souls to show up.
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Kunde
Brilliant and essential - embedding the LH's need for clarity in RH wisdom and love
Reviewed in Germany on January 29, 2024